


Who Said the Moon Was Made of Cheese?

by WinglessCrows



Series: Through the Eyes of a Cook [16]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Broken Promises, Conflict, Eavesdropping, Fluff and Angst, No Romance, Post-Time Skip, Promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-20 19:50:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12440400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinglessCrows/pseuds/WinglessCrows
Summary: "Sanji had always wondered about two things. 1) How Zoro had joined the crew and 2) What would happen if the crew ever discovered the truth of Zoro's encounter with Kuma back on Thriller Bark?"In which Sanji overhears a confrontation that should have been private.





	Who Said the Moon Was Made of Cheese?

**Author's Note:**

> When I originally posted this on ff, I asked if anyone could guess the meaning of the title. No one ever gave me the right answer, so please indulge me in what you think the title means when you've read it :D

Sanji had always wondered about two things. 1) How Zoro had joined the crew and 2) What would happen if the crew ever discovered the truth of Zoro's encounter with Kuma back on Thriller Bark? These were things he wondered, but accepted that he probably wouldn't ever get the answers to. The first one because Luffy wasn't a person to talk about the past and Zoro wasn't a person to talk (to Sanji at least). The second one because though he wondered, he knew the truth was better kept hidden and he was not going to be the person to tell anyone. However, the following night Sanji would get his answers to both of these things.

It was late and Sanji was about to go to bed, when he remembered that Luffy had first watch. That meant that if Sanji didn't give him snacks, he would raid the kitchen, so he quickly made something for the gluttonous Captain and made his way to the crow's nest. He would have entered without bothering to knock had he not heard Luffy first. Luffy was not one to raise his voice when he was angry, which was actually kind of scary. When Luffy was angry, really angry, he would have this calm look on his face and his voice would be stern and ice cold. But what he heard from the crow's nest was Luffy having raised his voice in anger and that scared Sanji more than any enemy ever could. Who on earth had angered Luffy enough for this to happen? Sanji hadn't heard what Luffy had said the first time, but he heard him the second time.

"You broke your promise! How do you expect me to trust you after this?!" At first Sanji didn't pay too much attention to the words. What really struck him was that behind the yelling and the anger, Luffy sounded sad. Really sad. Sanji put down the tray with food and drinks and sat down beside the door to keep listening, because no way he was going to leave now. Then the words struck him. You broke your promise. What did that mean and who had promised him what? So many questions. Sanji didn't have time to think too much, because a second voice said something which Sanji couldn't make out, but he could hear that the voice was to dark to be a woman, so that excluded a few people.

"An apology is not going to change what happened! What were you thinking? That I would be fine with your decision and that would be that?!" Luffy must've punched the wall at this point, because there was a loud bang, which was followed by something heavy falling to the ground... probably Zoro's weights.

"Then what should I have done! You were gonna die! I didn't have a choice!" It was clear at this point that it was Zoro and Luffy who were fighting, which somehow seemed odd to Sanji. They bickered, but they never fought. Except for that one time in Whiskey Peak, but that had been a misunderstanding and not too long after they had met, but this. This was different. This was clearly no misunderstanding and after months of companionship followed by two years of painful separation, Luffy and Zoro were closer than ever and at this point Sanji couldn't even imagine one without the other. Not that he could imagine the crew apart at all, but those two were special. Always together, always on the same page, always in perfect sync. What on earth had happened?

"You should have let me die!" The words struck Sanji hard. There was no way Zoro (or any other strawhat) would let Luffy die if they could help it and whether saving his life would mean sacrificing someone else, they would not hesitate to do it, least of all if that person was themselves. Sanji knew. Sanji had been there. Every single strawhat would give their life for Luffy's without even blinking an eye, because without Luffy they were nothing. And hearing Luffy tell Zoro, the one who probably cared about Luffy the most (which said a whole damn lot about how much he cared) that he should have let him die. That was painful to hear.

"You know I could never do that... Not anymore," Zoro didn't yell, but his words were still clear and Luffy punched another wall. Sanji slightly feared for the Sunny, but there wasn't really much that he could do at this point.

"But you promised..." Luffy lowered his voice and he sounded so broken that Sanji wanted nothing more than to burst in and give him a hug, but this was not his fight, so he wouldn't interfere.

"You promised," Luffy continued, "You wouldn't let me get in the way of your dream, you promised."

"I did."

There was a long pause and Sanji couldn't tell if they were just standing there in silence or doing something more, but the silence just made him wonder even more. At what point had Zoro made such a stupid promise. Anyone with a brain would know that he would eventually have to break that promise and there was no way Zoro would lie directly to Luffy. He had more pride, more honour than that.

"Back then," Zoro suddenly said, "I was in such an isolated place. I was thinking of no one but myself and cared only for my own goals and ambitions and it got me nowhere. I thought too highly of myself and too lowly of the world around me... And then you came along. I remember the first time I saw you and thought: A boy wearing a strawhat pretending to be a pirate, he'll be dead before long, but then you made me join your crew, which to be fair couldn't be called a crew when it was just the two of us and you broke the walls I had been building around myself. You forced me to see the world as it was and you made me understand my place in it.

"When I made that promise I was ignorant and self centred and I may still have some of those things within me, but I also know that without you there is nothing left for me. In a way I wouldn't break my promise if I sacrificed my life to save yours, because letting you die would mean letting my dream die too and I could never live with that, and I know I'm not the only one. Everyone in this crew feels the same. You can't die Luffy, not as long as you're carrying all of our dreams with you."

At this point Sanji was crying. He now knew what they were talking about and though he felt with Luffy, he agreed with Zoro. Luffy was their light. If he died, there would be nowhere for them to go and they would all go back to being just as lost as they had been before he had entered their lives.

"You don't understand..." Luffy said his voice trembling and Sanji got confused. What on earth was Luffy talking about now?

"What do you mean?" Zoro said voicing Sanji's thoughts.

"I can't..." Luffy sounded so close to his breaking point that Sanji could practically feel his heart aching, "I can't go on without you. I need you."

And then it hit Sanji just why Luffy had been so angry. Zoro had promised him to always put his dream before Luffy and that was his insurance. As long as Luffy believed that Zoro would never put him first, he could trust that Zoro would always be by his side and because he could trust that, he allowed himself to believe that Zoro would never die and oh how wrong he had been. Luffy always relied on Zoro the most, he put his full trust in Zoro and he put his dream in Zoro, just as Zoro and the rest of them had put theirs in Luffy. Just as they needed him to go on, Luffy needed Zoro, so learning that he had almost died to protect him must have been like a knife to the heart, because the one certainty he had was Zoro and now that was gone.

Silence had once again taken its hold and Sanji was frozen. He didn't even bother to wipe away his tears, because everything about this situation was just so heartbreaking. The two idiots on the other side of the door depended so much on each other that it had made them incapable of ever being without the other. It wasn't that they didn't care about the rest of the crew, because they definitely did. Look at what had happened when Robin had tried to sacrifice herself for them. And in spite of that Sanji believed that should someone ever die or actually leave the crew for whatever reason, they would be strong enough to keep going as long as Luffy was there. But if Zoro died, Luffy would never recover from the loss and they would have lost him as well. Someone had said that Zoro and Luffy were like two sides of the same coin and at the time Sanji had agreed just because they seemed to be inseparable, but now he got it. If one died, so did the other. Zoro had once said that he would follow Luffy wherever he went and Sanji knew that if it ever came to it, Zoro would follow him into death and beyond.

"Let's make a new promise then," Zoro said suddenly, "We don't die."

"You can't promise that. Ace promised that and he died."

Another knife to the heart. Ace was a forbidden word on the crew, because they had yet to learn where Luffy stood on the subject, so hearing Luffy talk about his death was painful.

"Then we don't die, but when we do, we die together." A short pause and...

"Sounds good to me," Luffy said and Sanji could hear the smile forming on his lips.

At that Sanji left. He didn't need to hear more, but now he understood. He couldn't let those idiots die. He wouldn't allow it and neither would anyone else. They would live forever if Sanji could make it so.

The tray Sanji had brought to the crow's nest was returned to the kitchen the next morning after Zoro had found it outside the crows nest. He knew Sanji had heard everything, but it didn't matter because Sanji wasn't going to say a word. He just going to act accordingly.

The following day was no different than any other day on the thousand Sunny. Nothing had changed.


End file.
